new year coming

I have a few minutes to start my New Year's resolution early: daily blog posts. They will often be short and may be random, but I'm going to aim for daily.

Last night E asked me to tell her a story. I asked her to give me some story elements to help me think of something. The characters she chose for one story were angels, for another, a princess. The place she chose for the longest story was "the dark, dark woods". She helped me craft the stories as we went along, too. Her eyes were wide, her posture alert, as we talked about a prince and a princess (brother and sister) who weren't afraid of the dark and went on an adventure in the dark, dark woods. She added the piece about them being super-fast runners, able to go 2100 miles per hour -- that's the highest number she can think of. I added monster noises heard in the woods and whistles their parents gave them to blow if they encountered any danger that they couldn't run away from. This is very good practice for me, and with instant feedback.

Another new insight... When I came in to check on her after bedtime and she was still awake, I touched her feet and said, "Oh, you're so toasty warm." She thought for a second or two and then her eyes lit up and she said, "When you touch me, you feel my warmness. When you touch me, I feel your coldness!"

Funny thing in the car... She was telling me about her day at school, some game they played, and I reacted as I frequently do, saying "Oh." She admonished me. "Don't say 'oh'. It's very exciting!" So I added some excitement to my voice and said "Ohhh!" That pleased her.